05 June 2017

Buy Wise Be Safe (BWBS) and University Hospitals Bristol NHS
Foundation Trust (UH Bristol) have got together to form a new
partnership which is set to address ways in which families can stay
safe by making simple changes to their routine and environment, to
prevent accidents from happening.

To launch the partnership, BWBS and UH Bristol will be promoting
a safety campaign, focused on burns caused by heated beauty
products including straighteners and hot brushes. #Bewareofburns
will go live on Monday 5 June, which will coincide with Child
Safety Week (5 - 11 June). Information and advice will be available
online for parents and carers to access, with tips on how to safely
use heated beauty products, what safety features to look for when
buying these items and what to do in an event when someone gets
burnt.

Recent statistics from Bristol Royal Hospital for Children shows
a staggering 90 per cent of children admitted with burns from hair
straighteners were under the age of five. The data also found there
wasn't a difference in the number of boys and girls burnt.

Mr Jonathon Pleat, burns lead at Bristol Royal Hospital for
Children, said: "We are delighted to be working alongside Buy Wise
Be Safe, to promote safety and to try and prevent accidents from
happening.

"Although this campaign is targeted at parents and carers of
children under the age of five, we are hopeful this information and
guidance is of use to anyone using heated beauty products, to
protect themselves from being burnt or injured.

"We see children from across the South West and Wales with burn
injuries and treat them with the skilled team in our national burns
centre. However, we want to prevent as many of these cases as
possible from occurring through simple measures that can reduce the
risk dramatically.

"A child's skin is much more fragile than an adult. It
only takes a second at the temperature which some of these devices
reach to cause permanent scarring. In some cases, burns may appear
in more than one place as a result of grabbing or stepping on the
heated blade surfaces. The risk is greatly reduced if
items such as tongs or hair straighteners are placed out the reach
of children or put in the supplied protective covers while the
surfaces are hot. Further, it is vital to purchase devices
with safety features that can reduce the risk - for example, some
have a timer that automatically turns the power off after a certain
amount of time.

"These burns are all the more tragic because typically they
affect the very young, the effects can be life-long and they are
entirely preventable."

Stuart Radnedge, spokesman for Buy Wise Be Safe, said: "Over the
last year the National Trading Standards Safety at Ports and
Borders Teams have detained a number of consignments of electrical
beauty products such as hair straighteners and hot brushes.
Following testing these products have been found to not comply with
standards required by UK and EU law and have therefore been
destroyed.

"While National Trading Standards is working hard to prevent
unsafe goods reaching consumers we would always recommend that
people undertake basic checks when buying online, to ensure they
are buying from a reputable seller. Our general rule of thumb is if
an online deal looks too good to be true then it probably is.

"It's not just cheap or knock-off goods that pose a threat to
consumers. Any item that heats up has the potential to scald or
burn someone. Sadly, with straighteners and tongs reaching
temperatures of 230°C, these items can remain hot long after use,
which is why it is important to stow them safely and look for
safety features that can reduce the likelihood of being burnt.

"Thankfully with our new partnership with UH Bristol, even more
parents and carers of under 5s should receive superb safety advice
that will help keep youngsters safe from harm around the home."